Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1887-05-25
AMONG THE TLINKITS.
LIEUT.. SCHWATkA'S ACCOUNT OF
WoMEN's RIGHTS IN ALASKA.

The Social Customs of Peculiar Tribe
of Alaskan Indiaps-A Bargain Not
Always Bargain-Succession to the
Chieftainship.
The first characteristic l shall speak of
is their peculiar treatment of their women.
How the Indians on one side of the 1'lfn-
kits brutaliZe their women, making Ecasts
of burden and slaves generally, is too
well known to my readers to repeat it ut
length here. The Eskimo, on the other
side, are far more considerable aad Just in
their dealings with their women, but the
T'linkit, instead of being a sort Of Tnean
between the two, as one might suppose,
and as they are in many other character
istics, go far beyond the gentle natured
Eskimo, and as a consequence, in the land
of the T'linkit, u curious kind of
''women's rights exists that is not ex-
celled even among the nations calling
themselves civilized. In all their bust
ness transactions, in all their family af-
fairs, and in all matters whatsoever where
it is possible for the woman of the house
hold to have word to say her decision is
needed to make these affairs final.
Every time man wants to undertake
a business transaction he takes his wife
along with him to ratify or veto the bar
gain, and should she be absent at the time
she may afterward put in an appearance
and upset the whole affair. Funniest of
all, the same equivalent transactions of
the women are not subject to the same
supervising power of the men, who have
nothing to say regarding the bargains of
their wives or daughters, except to foot
the bill, if any compensation is promised
by the squaws that the men are expected
to fill, as work, utensils they can make or
even money, where they get it from white
men and understand its value. I have
known several instances where the men
have closed certain bargains only to find
them opened again when the absent wife
put in an appearance. AS white men are
not very liable to undo q bargain which
they think is to their advantage they sci.
dom acquieSce in the demands of the
woman in canceling the contract, and
some of the worst personal miSunder-
standings between the two races have oc-
CURED on this account l, of course, do
not know how the T'lnkit man Jared after
he got home from such bargain; but
think we can all imagine pretty well.
w
times, upon my two expeditions into
Alaska-in 1883 and 18S6-Whenever /
came acroos some man from whom ]
wanted to buy some trit1ing article or to
employ for short time, to have to start
out for the Indian village, probably a
mile or two distant, to consult his wife
about it, or to bring her to me to talk the
matter over.
!, - soe4 -
of the tribe is a most singular one, based
also on ''women's rights or something
akin to it. Neither the eldest son of the
king and queen, or the chief and his wife,
nor, in fact, any of the sons or daughters
succeed their father to the head of the
tribe when he dies, but some one of the
nearest male relatives of the queen is
made chief when her husband dies. 1t is
easy to see that this curious and rounda-
bout method of handing down the scepter
may transfer the crown to anybody in the
tribe, and that there can be no such thing
as true royal succession or hereditary
descent of the chiefs power.
When the parents, or either of them,
have died, all of the effects that they pos.
sessed descend by inheritance on the
mothers side, none of the descendants OF
the father receiving anything out of the
estate. One would imagine that it would
lead to some curious muddles, but some
hew they manage to keep it straight.
The same as among all savages, the men
have often two or three wives, and in rare
cases even more; but the women, not to be
outdone in the matrimonial line, have in q
few cases-two or three of which know
of personally-two husbands. They are
nearly always rich women, who have had
a great deal left them by inheritance, OF
who had made a large amount them.
selves-for, as have said, the women dc
nearly all the business-and who can
afford such expensive luxuries. One
T'linki woman, Sitka woman, who went
by the name of Mrs. Tom among the white
people, and who had already one husband,
bought another, a slave, for about 1000
in goods and chattels, and when saw the
two together afterward / think he was the
best looking one of the pair. When man
and woman marry they try and adopt a
boy and girl. If the man dies the boy
becomes the woman's husband, and if the
woman dies the girl becomes the wife Of
the man.-Lieut. Schwatka in The indie.
pendent.